I got a message from PZ his own self– the Science Blog collective has set up a fund to help out some science teachers in need. It’s a good cause, and Seed magazine will match fund up to $15,000!
Head on over there and show ‘em what people with spines can do.
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising
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October 12th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Wouldn’t it be better to fight for better spending of existing education funds? I’m just sayin’.
One idea would be to break the near-fascist lock that sports have in our schools, and free up some of those funds, but that’s never happening in *this* dippy culture.
I’d support scientific calculators for kids only if they buy RPN calculators.
Anything else just isn’t taking things seriously enough.
October 12th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
I think it’s a wonderful idea. Public schools are underfunded and teachers often spend quite a bit of their own money on classroom supplies. While I think our tax money could be spent much better by investing more in education and less on war, but sadly that isn’t reality.
I see that PZ is doing quite well. His challenge shot right up in the ranks since this morning.
October 12th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
>>> Public schools are underfunded
Could we try some different solutions, such as per-child funding, before we throw more money into a broken system?
October 12th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
I was a science and math teacher in a public high school for the last 21 years, before that I worked in curriculum development in vo-tech training. As a department chair, I was always trying to get extra funds for both math and science departments. When budgets were really whack-o, I moved part of my math budget to the science department. Lets face it, biology isn’t very meaningful without disection specimens, chemistry and physics classes aren’t very productive without the supplies and equipment to run good labs. Science out of a book is really boring and not very meaningful. The reading in science and math texts is quite technical; most reading teachers do not know how to teach kids how to read technical material. But education in this country is founded on being able to read (which came from the early religious groups that moved to this country-the children had to learn to read so they could read the Bible). Reading is probably the single most valuable learning/teaching skill, but is overemphased to the detriment of the sciences and mathematics. The system isn’t going to change, putting non-educational $$ into science classes lets these teachers buy materials outside their budget.
October 13th, 2007 at 12:12 am
Quiet D – I like your stuff more and more! I have been unable to use Algebraic since Guam in 76 when I got my first HP-45. My favourite trick it to hand my calculator to someone who has asked for it, turn to someone else and quietly mouth the words Where’s the Equals key??” – about 3 seconds before the person with my calculator says those very words
JC
October 13th, 2007 at 7:30 am
I second the Reverse Polish Notation calculators. My HP-15C still rocks!
October 13th, 2007 at 10:28 am
[...] and many thanks to Phil for drawing in the astronomy crowd. Even people who stare into the cold, unfeeling void for fun are glad to help a good [...]
October 13th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I concur. The HP-15C rocks! I carry mine with me everywhere I go.
October 15th, 2007 at 8:09 am
Getting the government to give the money it’s supposed to doesn’t necessarily take that much time. Just good organization.
Giving money out of your own wallets is like accepting the current situation. Not that it’s a bad thing, but it isn’t effective in the long run – how much money can be raised only by volunteering individuals? This is temporary relief of the problem and though it makes one feel oh-so-much a better person for donating, it really doesn’t cut it.
Standing up for your rights is more difficult, but it pays off much more in the end.
I’m speaking as an outsider, as I’m not american, but note that I have personally sacrificed a lot – not just money – for better public education without donating a single cent to public institutions. Here in Greece, University students have had to go up against a serious attack on public education. We have fought, taken over Universities, got out on the streets and protested for long periods of time and specifically in my department we lost two exam periods. High price to pay, but I believe what we achieved was worth it in the end.
October 15th, 2007 at 11:47 am
I recently lost my HP-28S.
Some detective work and backtracking led me to believe it was accidentally knocked into a trash bin and thrown away. Utterly irreplacable unless I want to spend $$$ on eBay.
I got a new HP-50S. It’s OK, I guess. The keyboard is nicer than the 49, so maybe HP is getting serious about calculators again.
Carly Fiorina killed the calculator division., damn her soul (or whatever).
November 7th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
This method allows teachers to name exactly what they need, without the need to resort to asking entrenched bureaucrats. It would be interesting to see what we would get if education was run more like Ebay than the wishing well. Imagine what you would spend your tax money on if you could pick things that were directly requested by teachers.
I like this, and think its a great idea.